Craig Tanner

Tanner‘s Story:Tanner first started playing his football for our U8s side, having been brought to the Academy in 2003 after being spotted by Royals scout Dave Frithe while playing for Camberley Town.

Eight years later, the striker penned his long term future to the club alongside another promising Academy star Aaron Tshibola.

He’s been an important cog in the U21s roster, scoring on numerous occasions season after season. Throughout the 2012/13 campaign, he was part of the squad that lifted the U21s Premier League Cup in its initial year – the Royals beating Manchester City 4-3 on aggregate with Tanner finding the net in the first leg.

Martin Kuhl’s U21s side lifted yet more silverware the following season as they achieved promotion to Premier League Division One as runners-up to Middlesbrough, Tanner playing an important part in the proceedings.

He made his debut for the first team in the opening Capital One Cup fixture of the 2014/15 season against Newport County. He scored the Royals' third goal of the night after being introduced as an 89th minute substitute, replacing another goalscorer in Nick Blackman.

Up until January, Tanner played 1(+4) games in a blue and white shirt before looking to further develop his technical ability with a loan spell at League Two’s AFC Wimbledon.

He made his bow for the Dons against Accrington and went on to record 16(+3) appearances before returning to Madejski Stadium at the end of the season.

For the 2015/16 campaign, he joined Plymouth Argyle on loan for the duration of the League Two season, missing out on promotion in a play-off defeat against his former loan club AFC Wimbledon.

But he returned to Home Park in 2016-17 to help the Pilgrims earn automatic promtion to League One.

Beyond the Hoops:

Tanner's contract at the club expired at the end of the 2016-17 campaign, but the forward signed a two-year deal at Motherwell shortly after the conclusion of his successful season with Argyle.